A recent study of young British Sikhs shows that while they may be digitally savvy and engage with religion on the Internet, for many of them, traditional offline community and authorities continue to play a central role.
World Religions in America: The Second Generation
She looked the part of a fine arts major, with the gold spangle in her nostril, the streak of purple in her jet-black hair, and her bespoke clothing. Her diminutive form and high voice gave no hint of the feisty energy that would pour forth whenever she spoke up in the weekly meetings of the Student Interfaith Council at the University of Southern California. Born to Pakistani immigrant parents, she didn’t fit anybody’s stereotype of a Muslim woman.
Network for New Media, Religion and Digital Culture Studies
When Heidi Campbell crossed the Atlantic to do graduate work at the University of Edinburgh in 1996, a new electronic tool called the “Internet” became a comfortable lifeline for staying in touch with friends and family. She was captivated by the new technology, ending up doing her Edinburgh doctorate on church and another new internet-enabled phenomenon, virtual communities. (For the uninitiated, virtual communities are groups of computer users who know and interact with each other electronically, not in person, at least much of the time.)
RavelUnraveling the Multireligious Fabric of Our Lives
“Wait, you’re a Muslim? But you’re not even brown!”
When Emina, a member of Project Interfaith’s Youth Service activities in 2010, was faced with this challenge, rather than becoming defensive or shutting down, she took it seriously. With a video camera turned on, she explained her identity as a Muslim woman and addressed some of the misconceptions underlying that question. That got the staff at Project Interfaith thinking. We asked ourselves, What if more people had the chance to define and share their religious or spiritual identity in their own words and to confront the misconceptions and misunderstandings they face because of this? Thus RavelUnravel was born.
State of Formation: A Forum for Young Faith & Ethics Leaders
It is difficult to know where to turn to get accurate, interesting, creative, not to mention, meaty theological reflections exploring the social issues we face in the world today. The online forum State of Formation (SoF) offers such a place, and as the forum grows, the continuing legacy of writers, ideas, topics, and dialogue grows as well.
Foundations Working Together for Interreligious Cooperation
A Catholic, a Muslim, and a Jew were sitting together in a meeting. Sounds like the start to a religious joke, right? Or, perhaps, it would be an ordinary interfaith dialogue. Either would be a fair guess, but this time it is actually the start to an interesting development – the recent gathering of representatives from among the many different foundations interested in interreligious cooperation.
How Many Computers Do We Need?
We’ve come a long way since 1958 when Tom Watson, then IBM chairman, infamously said: “I think there is a world market for about five computers.” Indeed, computers and the World Wide Web have been so absorbed into our lives today that they’ve become like water is to fish. Ubiquitous, all around us, and quite taken for granted. They’ve changed the way we live, how we think and what we think about, how we’re entertained and how we plan for the future. Also, how we worship, what we believe, and how we practice spirituality and treat one another.
Spiritual Practice and Everyday Life in a Digital World
Spirituality & Practice is a website with 27,000 webpages, each a resource for individuals and communities seeking spiritual wisdom and guidance in their everyday lives. The site receives about 1.5 million unique visitors each year (more than 6,000 every day), who click on 5 million page-links. The site also hosts more than 100 online on-demand e-courses, all having to do with spiritual practice. Thousands sign up each year for the modestly priced courses. Hundreds of books and movies have been reviewed, and spiritual leaders from dozens of different religious traditions, alive or passed, are profiled, quoted, and linked to additional resources. S&P includes blogs, “Praying the News,” curricula, videos, galleries, poetry and stories, and more.
The Challenge of ISIS in America: Perspectives of Interfaith Leaders and Peacebuilders
A complex history of religious, political, and ethnically based conflict has now thrust the world into a wrenching conversation around the significance of a terrorist organization calling itself the Islamic State (known by other acronyms such as ISIL or ISIS or simply IS). Here in the U.S., this conversation has broadened to a more volatile discussion around religion, secularization, Islam and human rights.
Hindus Have Choices: Identity, PM Modi, and American Hindus
Supporters of Shri Narendra Modi, the recently elected Prime Minister of India, are looking to him to replicate nationally the hospitality to business investment and the infrastructure expansion that have fueled the growth in his home state of Gujarat. His economic track record was a major factor accounting for his electoral success.
Allen Downey and the Internet & Religion Debate
This past April, Allen Downey, a professor of computer science at Olin College of Engineering, published his study on the relationship between Internet use and the decline in religious affiliation among Americans. His findings went viral. Downey concluded that the Internet is responsible for a growing number of Americans who do not associate themselves with a religion. Many news outlets reported on Downey conclusions, most without any criticism: a quick Google search of “The Internet and religion” results in nothing but paraphrases from this single study.
Climate and the People: September 19-23, New York City
Sunday, September 21, 2014, the UN International Day of Peace. The sky was clear, the sun shining, and the air was vibrating with excitement. You could sense an unmistakable whiff of history-in-the-making. Soon mid-town Manhattan would become a rolling wave of humanity, a moving festival of people of every age, race, ethnicity, nationality, and belief. Most wore casual attire, some religious garb, and others chose colorful costumes and body paint. An impressive assortment of headgear showed up as well: hijabs, turbans, kippas, garlands, feathers, panama hats, and baseball caps.
Gatherings Large and Small Call for Peace
Last month I was glad to be invited to two significant interfaith gatherings, one in South Korea and the other in Southern India.
Greg Harder and Mastery of Interfaith Social Media
California-born Greg Harder invests three to five hours every day in front of his computer screen as a “cultural detective specializing in interfaith,” a phrase he coined to describe his internet social-media activities.
The Internet and Religion: the Current Debate
Earlier this year an argument surfaced about the internet and religion. Is the internet taking people away from religion? Last April, Kimberly Winston of Religion News Service published “Is the Internet Bad for Religion?” She reviewed an academic paper by Allen Downey, a professor of computer science, whose research showed that “the share of Americans claiming no religious affiliation grew from 8 percent to 18 percent while the number of Americans connected to the Internet rose from almost nothing to 80 percent.”
The Dalai Lama’s Call for Compassion
“West’s war with Islam to last 100 years” was the banner headline of a recent Australian newspaper. Admittedly, the text referred to ‘extreme Islam,’ but the headline reinforces a very dangerous over-simplification sadly too often voiced both by Christians and Muslims on the social media.
Online Games and the Contemporary Religious Landscape
In Virtually Sacred (2014), religious studies scholar Robert M. Geraci tackles the topic of religion in online games. While his approach and conclusions raise some questions, there is no question this book is long overdue.
Confronting My Temptation to Ban Books
We all know that banning books is wrong. So why is it so tempting?
Last month, for the 32nd year, The American Library Association observed Banned Books Week, a celebration of the “freedom to read” and a chance to bring “national attention to the harms of censorship.”
Study Surveys Buddhist Group’s Global Impact
A recent study shows how digital and social media has allowed one of the largest international religious and benevolent organizations to keep in touch with its more than 10 million followers worldwide, and help them in their mission to provide humanitarian relief.
Navigating the New Media Landscape
New communication and Internet technologies have created a dynamic new media landscape that has changed the face of religion in two decades. From the early days of the World Wide Web in the 1990s, the conversation on religion in cyberspace has been, and continues to be, highly prolific. Over time the Internet has established itself as the foremost marketplace of religious ideas, ultimately drawing even the most reluctant of the faithful into its spaces, including unconventional new religions.